Another frozen world sci-fi film. We’ve
seen some good. We’ve seen some very bad. With Jamie Bell and John Hurt and
Tilda Swinton one expects quality.

To lower global warming an artificial
substance is introduced into the atmosphere. Oops. They should have just stopped using fossil
fuels. The whole world freezes. A few survive by boarding a train that never stops.

Seventeen years pass. Most of the
passengers are kept in concentration-camp like conditions, the guards are like
Nazis. A rebellion is being planned by Curtis and young Edgar.

There is a Kafkaesque atmosphere to this
film, an eerie absurdity and awfulness. It’s hard to get into, not least
because it’s dark and it’s hard to see what’s happening. Hal’s comment about an
hour in: ‘This is really weird.’

It comes off as just slightly pretentious but it’s a strong concept and artistically filmed.
Often visually exciting it also becomes very gripping.